as summer begins
by Anrheithwyr
Summary: Summer has begun and Scorpius can't wait to meet his best friend's family.


"I've been waiting for this all year," Scorpius told his best friend as they were riding home on the train. "I know it sounds dumb and all, but I really have been kind of excited about visiting _the _Potter house, you know."

"Yeah, I understand, it's _the Potter house_, after all. As long as you don't take pictures or snitch things to sell off, though, Mum won't mind, and I'm sure you'll find the place to be rather boring. Honestly, though, it's only just a house, right?" Albus said, leaning against the window and slowly unwrapping a Chocolate Frog, peering down at the card. "Need a Fawcett? I've got one already, so no point in keeping this one, right?"

"Nah, I've got three of her, and they all run off and hide whenever I bring the cards out. Fawcett's obnoxious, really. Why they ever made a card out of such a self-absorbed no-talent _loser _of a Beater, I'll never understand." Scorpius replied, and so Albus merely tucked the card under the seat cushion before biting the head off of his Chocolate Frog.

"Suspect it's because she's kind of pretty, maybe? It's certainly not because she's helped the Cannons get anywhere," Albus mumbled sleepily as he munched on the frog, and Scorpius laughed, leaning past him to look outside.

Summer was already in full affect and going strong from the look of it, and judging by their current location, Scorpius suspected they were within an hour of King's Cross, a thought that made his palms sweat.

It had taken a lot of convincing for his dad to allow Scorpius to spend part of summer at Albus' house, but now that he had permission, Scorpius was worried that everything would go wrong. After all, Dad had never had too many nice things to say about the Potter family before.

But Dad had also been wrong about Rose Weasley and Albus Potter being the sort of people he wouldn't want to be hanging around; sure, Rose was a bit bossy and Albus a bit ridiculous, but they were also his best mates.

"I predict that my sister will be singing that _ridiculous _song again when we get back. What's the one, from that Muggle Disney movie a few years back? _Frozen_, I think? Anyway, she's still totally obsessed with that '_Let it Go_' song, and she sang it nearly all Christmas long. I mean, it's been four years, hasn't it? You'd think she'd find a new song to sing," Albus said conversationally in that way of his that always threw Scorpius off.

It always sounded like Albus was grumbling and complaining about nearly everything, but when Scorpius tried to call him out on it, Albus usually just shrugged his shoulders and made some comment about "life is the way it is. We've got to honour that, don't we? And what better way to honour being the way you are than talking about it?"

Rose seemed to find her cousin's vague eccentrics amusing, and sometimes it was, but for the most part, Albus Potter was kind of just a really weird kid that Scorpius couldn't seem to stop hanging around, nor did he really want to stop.

The train continued onwards for several more minutes as the two boys sat in mostly comfortable silence, with Albus attempting to unwrap another Chocolate Frog with his eyes closed and Scorpius throwing Bertie Bott's at him.

The two twelve years olds lounged around in their compartment, waiting for Rose to return, until Albus actually _did _fall asleep; he had been sitting upside down in his seat by this point, and slipped to the floor, eyes fluttering briefly before the boy finally just passed out.

Of course, Rose picked this exact time to return, giving her cousin a look of exasperation before making her way to the seat across from the two males.

"What is he doing now?" she asked, rolling her eyes as the piece of chocolate that Albus had been attempting to unwrap slipped from his fingers. "I'm sure the two of you will have a ton of fun this summer if this is all he does the whole time."

"Mhmm," Scorpius said, leaning down to clean up the scattered candy beans that he had dropped, popping a few into his mouth with no regard to Rose's look of disgust. "Are you going to visit over the summer as well? It'd be nice to see you again outside of school."

"Right, like it's not enough to have to deal with you two _during _the school year?" But Rose was grinning at Scorpius as the train made a hissing noise, coming into the station.

Albus woke back up, bleary-eyed and confused, giving Scorpius and Rose a crooked smile as the other two preteens grabbed their luggage, helping the dark-haired boy to his feet.

"I've haven't seen your brother since we boarded, Al," Rose pointed out as they watched other students streaming by, all clambering and chattering while they climbed off the train and stepped onto Platform 9 ¾. "Did he forget about us, you think?"

"Probably just doesn't care if we get off okay, I suspect," the boy replied as they joined the other students who were all rushing to get off the train to see their families.

They could see a tall, blonde head moving through the crowd, pushing past younger kids to reach their little trio, and as the sea of people parted a little, Rose leaned over to see that it was their oldest cousin, Victoire, who was now graduated.

"Have fun on your final trip?" Rose called as Victoire came closer, holding out a hand in offering to assist them with their trunks and bags.

"Yeah, it was pretty nice. Relaxed and it made me lot less anxious than I thought I'd end up. I mean…_I've graduated_, you know? It's just kind of hard to wrap my head around that still," Victoire explained, hopping down from the carriage and then helping the younger kids pull their things down onto the platform.

Scorpius wondered if he would be like that when he graduated, anxious but in shock. The idea of graduating still seemed to be so far into the future that Scorpius could barely even _imagine _being eighteen, thrown into the world.

Honestly, he thought to himself, it was easier to just stay twelve and stay at Hogwarts, where at least you knew your place and who you were. Graduating seemed to mostly just complicate a world that was already too complex and confusing.

As they made their way across the platform, Scorpius heard a loud, somewhat high-pitched voice cry out, "Albie! Rose! Toire! Over here!"

The four of them turned to look at a little redheaded girl that Scorpius guessed was probably about ten years old. She was jumping up and down, waving her hands in the air in an attempt to get their attention, and Scorpius suspected this was probably Lily, Albus' somewhat hyperactive little sister that he'd heard so much about.

Mr. and Mrs. Potter were standing just behind her, chatting with a brown-haired woman that Scorpius recognised as one of the many Mrs. Weasleys (this one was Rose's mum, though) who was holding the hand of a little boy who looked remarkably like Rose.

There was also a redheaded man-_Mr. Weasley, perhaps_-and, propped on top of his trunk, was the eldest of the Potter children, the thirteen year old James, who grinned at the sight of his brother.

"Nice, Al. you fall asleep on the way back, or did I just forget that your face is _naturally _smudged up like that?" James teased, causing Albus to run a hand across his face, taking in the way that the train seat had temporarily printed down the side of his head.

Albus stuck his tongue out at his older brother, knocking him off of the trunk, and the next second, the two brothers were chasing each other through the crowded platform.

Scorpius only watched, wondering what it would be like to have a brother. He had two little sisters, Petra and Lauryn, but they were just little kids who weren't even old enough for school.

Watching James and Albus, though, Scorpius remained sceptical that a brother was necessarily the sort of thing he'd be grateful for having.

Mr. Potter waved at Scorpius as he finished tugging his trunk over, and the twelve year gave him a shy wave back, still a bit intimidated by the fact that the father of his best friend was _the _Harry Potter, one of the most famous wizards in the twentieth century.

(At least, according to the Daily Prophet. If you asked Professor Binns, then Harry Potter was just another name tacked on to the end of his lessons near the end of the year.)

As Scorpius looked around at the Potters and the Weasleys, scrambling and laughing and helping each other as they walked to their cars, he briefly let himself imagine having a family that was as affectionate as this one was.

It wasn't that his parents never hugged him or told Scorpius that he was loved, but big signs of affection, especially public ones, were a bit rare in the Malfoy house, and even his own parents seemed to barely ever say "_I love you_" to each other.

"In the car with the lot of you," Mr. Potter said and Lily began singing an off-key rendition of "_Let it Go_", just as Albus had predicted, which made her two brothers grumble and complain. "We've got a drive ahead of us, come on, let's get in the car now. I'll make spaghetti tonight if you get everything in the boot in five minutes."

The Potters rushed at that statement, stuffing their trunks into the back of the car and squashing themselves into the backseat, all sprawled over each other so that the backseat was a tangled mess of limbs and hair and loud voices.

Scorpius smiled, tossing his own trunk into the boot and joining the cluster of Potter children. He might have been a bit presumptuous to think so, but Scorpius was sure that this summer would be the best summer he'd had yet.


End file.
